Information processing apparatus, method and program

ABSTRACT

An information processing apparatus which allows a user to select information on a predetermined program as programs interesting to the user and current topics of conversation. The information processing apparatus includes: a first selection section for extracting a keyword from program information of a predetermined program selected from at least one of a program being received and a recorded program, and selecting article information including the same keyword as the extracted keyword among article information described in an RSS format and being delivered to a user; and a display controller for displaying the article information selected by the first selection section simultaneously with an image of the predetermined program.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present invention contains subject matter related to Japanese PatentApplication JP 2005-208840 filed in the Japanese Patent Office on Jul.19, 2005, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus,method, and program. More, particularly, the present invention relatesto an information processing apparatus, method, and program capable ofselecting information related to predetermined programs, such asprograms which are interesting to a user and are current topics ofconversation.

2. Description of the Related Art

To date, there have been techniques which analyze matters considered tobe current topics on the basis of the number of keywords, etc., includedin program information provided as an EPG (Electronic Program Guide),and introduce to users the recorded programs and the programs to bebroadcast that match the current topics.

Thus, a user can be provided with, for example the introductions ofsoccer programs among the recorded programs and the programs to bebroadcast during the tournament in which soccer programs are frequentlybroadcast.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 8-166961 hasdisclosed a technique for enabling a user to easily get information on aparticular subject by extracting keywords from a plurality of characterstring data and by selecting information on the basis of the extractedkeywords.

However, there is a problem in that subject matters determined only byprogram information are not necessarily popular topics among generalusers, because the contents addressed in the program are not selected bythe reflection on subjective judgment of an individual, for example “Iam interested in certain topics, or certain topics are popular aroundme”.

In recent years, bulletin boards on which users write their opinions,Weblogs (so-called Blogs) which attract people's attention as a tool fordispatching personal information, etc., have become widespread. Althoughsome topics are not addressed in programs, those topics are often verypopular among a certain bulletin board or Blog.

If the programs are selected in accordance with the matters taken up ona bulletin board or a Weblog, or the matters taken up in news deliveredat a portal site, and those programs can be presented to a user, itbecomes possible to introduce programs that are not dependent on programorganizations. Also, if the headlines of news, etc., are displayed alongwith the programs to be introduced at that time, the user can selectwhether to view the introduced program while seeing those headlines.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been made in view of these circumstances. Forexample, it is desirable to enable users to select information relatedto predetermined programs, such as programs which are interesting to theusers and are current topics of conversation.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is providedan information processing apparatus including: a first selection sectionfor extracting a keyword from program information of a predeterminedprogram selected from at least one of a program being received and arecorded program, and selecting article information including the samekeyword as the extracted keyword among the article information describedin an RSS format and being delivered to a user; and a display controllerfor displaying the article information selected by the first selectionsection simultaneously with an image of the predetermined program.

The first selection section may give a ranking to the extracted keywordand select one of article information having a highest ranking, and thedisplay controller may display one piece of the article informationhaving the highest ranking selected by the first selection sectionsimultaneously with the image of the predetermined program.

The display controller may further switch displays of the articleinformation in accordance with the given rankings.

The information processing apparatus may further include: a firstsetting section for extracting a keyword from article informationdescribed in an RSS format and being delivered to a user, and giving aranking to the extracted keyword; a second setting section for acquiringat least one of program information on a program being received andprogram information on a recorded program, and giving a ranking to theprogram including, in the program information, the same keyword as akeyword having as far as a predetermined ranking among the keywordshaving rankings given by the first setting section; and a secondselection section for selecting the predetermined program on the basisof the rankings given by the second setting section.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided amethod or a program of information processing including the steps of:extracting a keyword from program information of a predetermined programselected from at least one of a program being received and a recordedprogram, and selecting article information including the same keyword asthe extracted keyword among the article information described in an RSSformat and being delivered to a user; and displaying the selectedarticle information simultaneously with an image of the predeterminedprogram.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, keywords areextracted from program information of a predetermined program selectedfrom at least one of a program being received and a recorded program,and article information including the same keyword as the extractedkeyword is selected among the article information described in an RSSformat and being delivered to a user. Also, the selected articleinformation is displayed simultaneously with an image of thepredetermined program.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, it is possible fora user to select information related to predetermined programs, such asprograms which are interesting to the user and are current topics ofconversation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of an information processingapparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention and atelevision receiver connected thereto;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a programs/RSS articleintroduction screen;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a menu screen;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating another example of a menu screen;

FIGS. 5A and 5B are diagrams illustrating an example of switching from amenu screen to a program/RSS article introduction screen;

FIGS. 6A and 6B are diagrams illustrating another example of switchingfrom a menu screen to a program/RSS article introduction screen;

FIGS. 7A and 7B are diagrams illustrating still another example ofswitching from a menu screen to a program/RSS article introductionscreen;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the hardwareconfiguration of the information processing apparatus;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the functionalconfiguration of the information processing apparatus;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the detailedconfiguration of a program selection section in FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a processing flow;

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of program information;

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of program rankings;

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating another example of programinformation;

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating another example of program rankings;

FIG. 16 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the detailedconfiguration of an RSS article selection section in FIG. 9;

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating a processing flow;

FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating the program selection/displayprocessing of the information processing apparatus;

FIG. 19 is a flowchart illustrating the profile selection processingperformed in step S4 in FIG. 18;

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating the RSS article acquisitionprocessing performed in step S5 in FIG. 18;

FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating the program selection processingperformed in step S6 in FIG. 18;

FIG. 22 is a flowchart illustrating the selected program displayprocessing performed in step S7 in FIG. 18;

FIG. 23 is a flowchart illustrating the program related informationselection/display processing of the information processing apparatus;

FIG. 24 is a flowchart illustrating the program related informationselection processing performed in step S55 in FIG. 23;

FIG. 25 is a flowchart illustrating the program related informationdisplay processing performed in step S56 in FIG. 23;

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating display areas;

FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating display candidate programs and the RSSarticles that are related information thereof;

FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating an example of switching displays;

FIG. 29 is a diagram illustrating another example of switching displays;

FIG. 30 is a diagram illustrating still another example of switchingdisplays; and

FIG. 31 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configurationof a personal computer.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the following, a description will be given of an embodiment of thepresent invention. The relationship between the constituent features ofthe present invention and the embodiment described in the detaileddescription of the present invention is exemplified as follows. Thisdescription is for confirming that an embodiment supporting the presentinvention is included in the detailed description of the presentinvention. Accordingly, if there is an embodiment included in thedetailed description of the present invention, but not included here asan embodiment corresponding to the constituent features, the fact doesnot mean that the embodiment does not corresponds to the constituentfeatures. On the contrary, if an embodiment is included here asconstituent features corresponding to the present invention, the factdoes not mean the embodiment does not correspond to the features otherthan the constituent features.

An information processing apparatus (for example, the informationprocessing apparatus 1 in FIG. 1) according to an embodiment of thepresent invention includes: a first selection section (for example, aselection section 183 in FIG. 16) for extracting a keyword from programinformation of a predetermined program (for example, a display candidateprogram) selected from at least one of a program being received and arecorded program, and selecting article information including the samekeyword as the extracted keyword among the article information describedin an RSS format and being delivered to a user; and a display controller(for example, a display controller 157 in FIG. 9) for displaying thearticle information selected by the first selection sectionsimultaneously with an image of the predetermined program.

The information processing apparatus may further include: a firstsetting section (for example, an RSS article keyword ranking creationsection 173 in FIG. 10) for extracting a keyword from articleinformation described in an RSS format and being delivered to a user,and giving a ranking to the extracted keyword; a second setting section(for example, a program ranking creation section 174 in FIG. 10) foracquiring at least one of program information on a program beingreceived and program information on a recorded program, and giving aranking to the program including, in the program information, the samekeyword as a keyword having as far as a predetermined ranking among thekeywords having rankings given by the first setting section; and asecond selection section (for example, a selection section 175 in FIG.10) for selecting the predetermined program on the basis of the rankingsgiven by the second setting section.

A method or a program of information processing according to anembodiment of the present invention include the steps of: extracting akeyword from program information of a predetermined program (forexample, display candidate program) selected from at least one of aprogram being received and a recorded program, and selecting (forexample, step S68 in FIG. 24) article information including the samekeyword as the extracted keyword among the article information describedin an RSS format and being delivered to a user; and displaying (forexample, step S71 in FIG. 25) the selected article informationsimultaneously with an image of the predetermined program.

In the following, a description will be given of an embodiment of thepresent invention with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of an information processingapparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention and atelevision receiver (TV) connected thereto.

The information processing apparatus 1 is a digital picture recordingapparatus having an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) built-in. The informationprocessing apparatus 1 not only outputs images and sound of a programfrom a TV 2, but appropriately acquires program data from the broadcastwave received by an antenna not shown, and stores the acquired programdata into the HDD (records the program).

The information processing apparatus 1 has a function of acquiring abroadcast EPG, a function of acquiring an EPG by connecting to apredetermined server via the Internet and downloading from the server.The EPG includes program information, such as a title, a category, abroadcast date and time, performers, a program summary, etc.

Also, the information processing apparatus 1 is connected to a network,and has a function of receiving information in an RSS (ResourceDescription Framework Site Summary) format, which is delivered fromnewspaper publisher's sites, various portal sites, etc., registered inadvance by a user and acquiring articles, such as news, comments, etc.That is to say, the information processing apparatus 1 is equipped withan RSS reader which reads information in the RSS format.

Here, RSS is a data format used for describing the titles, hyperlinks,and the summary of the sentences (texts), etc., written on Web pages andWeblogs, and indicating the summary of the Web pages and the Weblogs.The apparatuses to be provided with information receive articleinformation in the RSS format (in the following, called RSS articlesappropriately) delivered from the sites that the user has registered inadvance. Thus, the user can acquire the Web page information includingsentences, images, etc., and when the contents of the Web pages areupdated, the user can acquire the updated Web page informationimmediately after the update.

In the information processing apparatus 1 having such a function,matters of current topics in general are determined from the acquiredRSS articles. Then the programs addressing the topics are selected fromthe recorded programs or the programs being broadcast, and areintroduced to the user.

For example, keywords are extracted from the RSS articles that have beendelivered from the sites registered by the user. Rankings are set to thekeywords in accordance with the number of the keywords included in theRSS articles. Also, rankings are given to the programs whose programinformation (title and summary) including high ranking keywords inaccordance with the number of the included keywords, and the highranking programs are selected as the programs to be introduced to theuser.

Also, from the programs selected to be introduced to the user, the RSSarticles are selected as the related information, and are introduced tothe user.

The selected programs and the RSS articles, namely the relatedinformation to the programs, are displayed on the TV 2. The user isallowed to instruct to view the program from the screen, or to instructthe display of the Web page, etc., (that content) whose summary isdisplayed by the RSS article body text or the RSS article.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a program/RSS article introductionscreen displayed by the information processing apparatus 1.

The program/RSS article introduction screen includes a main screen 11,an RSS article title display section 11A, an RSS article body textdisplay section 11B, sub-screens 12-1 to 12-3, and RSS article titledisplay sections 12-1A to 12-3A.

In the example of FIG. 2, the widest area is allocated to the mainscreen 11, and the RSS article title display section 1A is providedbelow the main screen 11. Sub-screens 12-1 to 12-3 having the same-sizeareas individually are displayed below the RSS article title displaysection 11A. RSS article title display sections 12-1A to 12-3A areprovided below the sub-screens 12-1 to 12-3, respectively. 11A RSSarticle body text display section 11B is provided in the right side ofthe screen.

The main screen 11 is an area in which the program having the highestranking (still image or moving image of the program) selected from therecorded program or the program being broadcast is basically displayed.For example, a program whose program information includes the largestnumber of keywords that are extracted from the RSS articles and listedon relatively high rankings is regarded as the program having thehighest ranking, and thus that program is displayed on the main screen11. In the example in FIG. 2, an image of a soccer rely is displayed inthe main screen 11.

For the image of the program to be displayed on the main screen 11, forexample if the program is a recorded program, the image selected fromthe data of the recorded program is used. If the program is a programbeing broadcast, the image of the program being broadcast or the imageprovided by being included in the program information is used. This isthe same for the images to be displayed on the sub-screens 12-1 to 12-3.

In the example of FIG. 2, in the RSS article title display section 11Aprovided below the main screen 11 on which a program of a soccer relayis displayed, the RSS article title related to the soccer relay, “matchagainst Bahrain, the starting members are announced” is displayed. Thistitle is, for example the RSS article title being delivered from apredetermined site at the time of starting the broadcast of the soccerrelay displayed on the main screen 11.

The RSS article body text display section 11B is an area in which thebody text of the RSS article whose title is displayed in the RSS articletitle display section 11A. In the example of FIG. 2, an article on thestarting members of the soccer match displayed on the main screen 11 isdisplayed.

The contents to be broadcast as a program is considered to include someinformation which is taken up on a Web page or a weblog. Thus, if theRSS article on such a program can be acquired, it becomes possible todisplay the title and the body text along with the program.

The sub-screens 12-1 to 12-3 are areas in which programs having lowerrankings than the program displayed in the main screen 11 are displayed,and images of soccer programs are displayed, individually. The RSSarticle title display sections 12-1A to 12-3A provided below thesub-screens 12-1 to 12-3 are areas in which the titles of the RSSarticles selected as the related information of the program displayed onthe sub-screens 12-1 to 12-3 are displayed. In the example of FIG. 2,the titles of the RSS articles on soccer are displayed in the RSSarticle title display sections 12-1A to 12-3A, respectively.

That is to say, this example shows the case in which the user receivesthe delivery of the RSS articles on soccer, and some soccer programshave been already recorded or being broadcast.

By selecting the programs displayed on the main screen 11, and thesub-screens 12-1 to 12-3 from the program/RSS article introductionscreen of FIG. 2, the user is allowed to view the recorded soccerprograms. Also, by selecting the titles of the RSS articles, the user isallowed to see the body text and that content of the RSS articles.

Also, the user is allowed to switch the programs that are displayed onthe main screen 11, and the sub-screens 12-1 to 12-3 by a predeterminedoperation. When the programs are switched, the displays of the RSSarticles (the title and the body text of the RSS articles) to beintroduced are also switched with the program switch.

The contents of the RSS articles delivered to the user are interestingto the user, and thus the information processing apparatus 1 can selectinteresting programs to the user by selecting the programs on the basisof the RSS articles as described above.

Also, when the information published on a delivery site of the RSSarticles is updated, the RSS articles are acquired immediately after theupdate, and the programs are selected on the basis of the acquired RSSarticles. Thus, the information processing apparatus 1 can select theprograms suitable for the current topics among general users.

A description will be given below of the details of the processing ofthe information processing apparatus 1 for displaying such a program/RSSarticle introduction screen.

Here, a description will be given of the other screens displayed by theinformation processing apparatus 1.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are diagrams illustrating examples of a menu screendisplayed by the information processing apparatus 1.

As shown by a broken line in FIG. 3, category icons 21 to 25 indicatingindividual categories are arranged to be displayed in a lateraldirection of the screen. Also, as shown by a broken line in FIG. 4,content icons (video content icons 31 to 34), which indicate thecontents included in the category selected by the user, are arranged tobe displayed in a vertical direction perpendicular to the arrangementdirection of the category icons 21 to 25. In this regard, the brokenlines in FIGS. 3 and 4 are given for the sake of explanation, and arenot actually shown on the menu screen.

In the examples of FIGS. 3 and 4, a category icon 21 indicating a“photo” category, a category icon 22 indicating a “music” category, acategory icon 23 indicating a “video” category, a category icon 24indicating a “television” category, and a category icon 25 indicating a“game” category are arranged to be displayed from the left to the rightof the screen.

That is to say, the information processing apparatus 1 has a “video”function which is selected when an operation on recording a program,such as reproduction of a recorded program, etc., is performed, a“television” function which is selected when a program being broadcastis viewed, a “photo” function which is selected when an image (stillimage) captured from a digital camera, etc., is reproduced, a “music”function which is selected when music stored in the internal HDD isreproduced, and a “game” function which is selected when a game isperformed.

Also, in the example of FIGS. 3 and 4, the user has selected “video”,and the content icons 31 to 34 indicating video icons included in“video” are arranged to be displayed in the vertical direction.

The icon currently selected out of the content icons 31 to 34 is thecontent icon 32. The content icon 32 is an icon to be selected when thestart of the reproduction of the recorded program, “soccer special” isinstructed. The character “soccer special” is displayed next to thecontent icon 32.

On such a menu screen, the user can basically select a category by thelateral operation (right and left buttons) of a remote controller, andcan select a content included in the selected category by the verticaloperation (up and down buttons).

In accordance with the user's operation, the category icons 21 to 25(the category icons 21 to 25, and the other category icons indicatingthe other categories not shown in FIGS. 3 and 4) and the content icons31 to 34 (the content icons 31 to 34, and the other content icons notshown in FIGS. 3 and 4) are all moved together, individually.

For example, in the state of FIG. 3 in which “video” is selected, if theuser presses the left button one time, the category icons 21 to 25 areentirely moved together in the right direction. The category icon 22will be moved to the position where the category icon 23 is displayednow, and the category icon 21 will be displayed at the position wherethe category icon 22 is displayed.

In the same manner, the category icon 23 will be displayed at theposition where the category icon 24 is displayed now, and the categoryicon 24 will be displayed at the position where the category icon 25 isdisplayed. Another category icon, which is not shown in FIGS. 3 and 4but disposed at the left side of the category icon 21, will be displayedat the position where the category icon 21 is displayed.

Thus, the current state is changed to a state of selecting “music” inplace of “video”, and the content icons indicating audio contentsincluded in “music” are arranged and displayed in the verticaldirection.

On the other hand, if the user presses the right button one time in thestate of FIG. 3, the category icons 21 to 25 are all moved together inthe left direction on the contrary. Thus, the current state is changedto a state of selecting “television”.

Also, for example, in the state of FIG. 3 in which the content icons 31to 34 are displayed, if the user presses the up button one time, thecontent icons 31 to 34 are all moved together in the upward direction.The content icon 32 will be moved to the position where the content icon31 is displayed now, and the content icon 33 will be displayed at theposition where the content icon 32 is displayed.

In the same manner, the content icon 34 will be displayed at theposition where the content icon 33 is displayed now, and another contenticon, which is not shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 but disposed just under thecontent icon 34, will be displayed at the position where the contenticon 34 is displayed.

Thus, the current state is changed to a state of selecting the contenticon 33 from the state of selecting the content icon 32. At this time,the tile of the video content indicated by the content icon 33, etc., isdisplayed next to the content icon 33.

On the other hand, if the user presses the downward button one time inthe state of FIG. 3, the content icons 31 to 34 are all moved togetherin the downward direction on the contrary. Thus, the current state ischanged to a state of selecting the content icon 31.

The user is allowed to display the program/RSS article introductionscreen shown in FIG. 2 from such a menu screen.

For example, when a category for selecting a user (profile) is selected,if the information processing apparatus 1 is used by a plurality ofusers, such as a family members, etc., icons (characters) for selectinga user using the information processing apparatus 1, for example“father”, “mother”, “elder brother”, and “younger sister”, etc., arearranged in the vertical direction. If the user is a father, the fathercan receive an introduction of the programs and RSS articles suitablefor him by selecting the “father” icon.

FIG. 5A is a diagram illustrating an example of display when a categoryfor selecting a user is selected on the menu screen.

In the example of FIG. 5A, the icons of “younger brother”, “father”,“mother”, and “elder brother” are arranged in the vertical direction anddisplayed. When the user selects the icon of “father”, if the “father”receives the RSS article delivery on soccer, and soccer is currently ageneral topic, as shown in FIG. 5B, the TV 2 shows the program/RSSarticle introduction screen for introducing soccer programs and therelated RSS articles to the programs.

In the same manner, if the “father” receives the RSS article delivery onhorse racing, and horse racing (Derby) is currently a general topic,when the user selects the icon of “father” as shown in FIG. 6A, the TV 2shows the program/RSS article introduction screen for introducing horseracing programs and the related RSS articles to the programs as shown inFIG. 6B.

Also, when the user using the information processing apparatus 1 is amother, and the icon of “mother” is selected as shown in FIG. 7A, if the“mother” is related to the RSS article delivery as shown in FIG. 7B, andthe programs addressing a general topic are displayed on the program/RSSarticle introduction screen.

The programs and the RSS articles introduced by the program/RSS articleintroduction screen are switched by the user using the informationprocessing apparatus 1, or at the timing of use in this manner, becausethe programs and the RSS articles are selected on the basis of thecontents of the RSS articles delivered to the user and the topics atthat time that have been determined from the RSS articles.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the hardwareconfiguration of the information processing apparatus 1.

A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 101 executes programs stored in a ROM(Read Only Memory) 103 and programs loaded from an HDD 118 to a RAM(Random Access Memory) 102 through an HDD I/F 117 and a bus 104, andcontrols each section in accordance with, for example instructions(commands from a remote controller) of the user, which has been receivedby an U/I controller 105.

In this regard, Cell, which has been described in “Cell come intoexistence”, Nikkei Electronics, Nikkei Business Publications, Feb. 28,2005, p. 89 to p. 117, can be employed for the CPU 101.

A tuner 106 receives a broadcast signal from an antenna not shown andoutputs the received signal to a demodulator 107 under the control ofthe CPU 101.

The demodulator 107 demodulates the received signal supplied from thetuner 106, and outputs the transport stream broadcast through apredetermined channel to a TS decoder 108.

The TS decoder 108 extracts a predetermined stream from the transportstream supplied from the demodulator 107 under the control of the CPU101 using a RAM 109, and outputs packets constituting the extractedstream onto the bus 104 or an AV decoder 110. The packets (program data)supplied on the bus 104 are supplied to the HDD 118 through, for examplethe HDD I/F 117, and stored. Also, the EPG acquired by the TS decoder108 is appropriately supplied to the HDD 118, and stored.

The AV decoder 110 decodes the video data (video packets) and audio data(audio packets) supplied from the TS decoder 108 using a RAM 111, andoutputs the audio signal and the video signal obtained by the decodingto an MUX 112 and an MUX 113, respectively.

The MUX 112 outputs sound corresponding to the audio signal suppliedfrom the AV decoder 110 from a speaker 2B of the TV 2.

The MUX 113 displays various screens and images, such as a program/RSSarticle introduction screen, etc., on a display 2A of the TV 2 on thebasis of the video signal supplied from the AV decoder 110 and the videosignal (OSD (On Screen Display) signal) supplied from a displaycontroller 114.

The display controller 114 generates a video signal for displayingvarious images on a display 2A under the control of the CPU 101, andoutputs the generated video signal to the MUX 113.

An SIO (Serial I/O) controller 115 connects to a Web server 133 throughthe Internet 132 by controlling a high-speed modem 131, and downloads anEPG, etc., as necessary. The EPG acquired by the download is supplied tothe HDD 118, and stored. Also, the SIO controller 115 accesses adelivery site of the RSS articles registered by the user and receivesthe RSS articles. The RSS articles acquired by the receiving is alsosupplied to the HDD 118, and stored.

An IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 1394 I/F 116captures video data from a video camera which is connected through anIEEE 1394 cable.

An HDD I/F 117 stores the data supplied through the bus 104 into the HDD118, and supplies the data stored in the HDD 118 to each section throughthe bus 104.

A card I/F 119 records the data supplied through the bus 104 onto amemory card 135 attached to a card slot 120. Also, the card I/F 119reads the data recorded on the memory card 135, and outputs it onto thebus 104.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the functionalconfiguration of the information processing apparatus 1. At least a partof the functional sections shown in FIG. 9 is achieved by executing apredetermined program by the CPU 101 in FIG. 8.

The information processing apparatus 1 includes an RSS articleacquisition section 151, an RSS article database 152, a programinformation acquisition section 153, a program information database 154,a program selection section 155, an RSS article selection section 156,and a display controller 157.

The RSS article acquisition section 151 controls the SIO controller 115,etc., and accesses the sites registered by the user in advance in orderto acquire RSS articles. The acquisition of RSS articles is performed ata predetermined timing, such as when the user turns on the power toinformation processing apparatus 1, or when the user instructs todisplay a program/RSS article introduction screen (when the user selectsa user's icon from the main menu), etc.

For example, a delivery site registered by a father, a delivery siteregistered by a mother, etc., are accessed in sequence, and the RSSarticles are acquired from individual sites. When the user hasregistered a site to be the delivery source of the RSS articles, aprofile information is created, and an access destination site isidentified from the profile information of each user. The RSS articlesacquired by the RSS article acquisition section 151 are output to theRSS article database 152, and stored. The stored RSS articles may bedeleted when a predetermined time period has passed from the storageonto the RSS article database 152.

The program information acquisition section 153 acquires the programinformation of each program from the EPG data acquired by the TS decoder108 from the broadcast wave, or the EPG data acquired from apredetermined server through the Internet 132, and stores the acquiredprogram information into the program information database 154. Theprogram information database 154 stores the program information of therecorded programs in addition to the program information of the programsbeing broadcast and to be broadcast.

The program selection section 155 extracts keywords from the RSSarticles stored in the RSS article database 152, and gives rankings tothe keywords in accordance with the number of keywords included in theRSS articles, etc. Also, the program selection section 155 refers to theprogram information database 154, and gives rankings to the programswhose program information includes high ranking keywords in accordancewith the number of the included keywords, etc.

Also, the program selection section 155 selects a predetermined numberof programs on the high rankings as programs of display candidates onthe basis of the given rankings, and outputs the selected programinformation along with the rankings given for individual programs to theRSS article selection section 156 and the display controller 157. Adetailed description will be given of the program selection section 155below.

The RSS article selection section 156 selects the RSS articles relatedto the programs selected by the program selection section 155 withreference to the RSS articles stored in the RSS article database 152 andthe program information stored in the program information database 154,and outputs the titles and the body texts of the RSS articles to thedisplay controller 157. That is to say, the program selection section155 selects the programs on the basis of the RSS articles, whereas theRSS article selection section 156 selects the RSS articles on the basisof the programs. A detailed description will be given of the RSS articleselection section 156 below.

The display controller 157 acquires the images of the programs of thedisplay candidates selected by the program selection section 155 fromthe HDD 118, etc., and displays individual programs on the program/RSSarticle introduction screen. For example, when the number of images ofthe programs to be displayed on the program/RSS article introductionscreen is assumed to be four, if the program selection section 155selects the programs of that number or more as display candidateprograms, the display controller 157 selects only four programs from thedisplay candidate programs, and the selected four programs are displayedin individual areas. Which program image is displayed in which area isdetermined by the rankings given to the program and user's operation.

Also, the display controller 157 displays the titles of the RSS articlesin the vicinity of individual programs on the basis of the informationsupplied from the RSS article selection section 156, and displays thebody text of the RSS article related to the program displayed on themain screen 11.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the detailedconfiguration of the program selection section 155 in FIG. 9.

A program keyword extraction section 171 reads the program informationof each program from the program information database 154, and extractskeywords (program keywords) for each program by referencing dictionariesprovided, etc. The program keywords extracted from the programinformation of each program are outputs to a program ranking creationsection 174.

An RSS article keyword extraction section 172 reads all the RSS articleswhich are delivered to individual users and stored in the RSS articledatabase 152, and extracts keywords (program keywords) by referencingdictionaries provided, etc. For example, if the father receives the RSSarticle delivery from three delivery sites, the RSS article keywords areextracted using all the RSS articles acquired from those delivery sites.The RSS article keywords extracted by the RSS article keyword extractionsection 172 are output to an RSS article keyword ranking creationsection 173.

The RSS article keyword ranking creation section 173 gives points to theRSS article keywords extracted from the RSS article keyword extractionsection 172 in accordance with the number of keywords included in theRSS articles, etc., and creates the rankings of the RSS article keywords(RSS article keyword rankings). The points given to the keywords may beappropriately provided with predetermined weightings.

The keywords included in the RSS articles at many places are consideredto be words representing the matters that have become general topics.Thus, a predetermined number of keywords listed on the higher rankingsof the RSS article keywords created by the RSS article keyword rankingcreation section 173 are output to the program ranking creation section174 as topic keywords which represents current topics.

The program ranking creation section 174 determines whether the programkeywords, for each program, supplied from the program keyword extractionsection 171 include the topic keywords supplied from the RSS articlekeyword ranking creation section 173. If they include the topickeywords, the program ranking creation section 174 gives the points toeach program in accordance with the number of the topic keywordsincluded, and creates the rankings of the programs (program rankings).

A program whose program information includes the same words as the topickeywords is considered to be a program addressing the matters that havebecome current topics, and thus this program ranking is considered torepresent the rankings of topic programs. In this regard, the points tobe given to the programs may be provided with weightings in accordancewith the rankings of the topic keywords included in the program keywords(the rankings in the RSS article keywords). The program rankings createdby the program ranking creation section 174 are output to the selectionsection 175.

The selection section 175 selects a predetermined number of programslisted on the program rankings created by the program ranking creationsection 174 as the display candidate programs, and outputs the displaycandidate programs to the RSS article selection section 156 and thedisplay controller 157.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating the processing-flow by the programselection section 155.

For example, as shown by a solid-white arrow A1, program keywords areextracted from the program information of each program by the programkeyword extraction section 171.

At the same time, as shown by a solid-white arrow A2, RSS articlekeywords are extracted from all the RSS articles that the user receivesby the delivery by the RSS article keyword extraction section 172. Therankings of the extracted RSS article keywords are created by the RSSarticle keyword ranking creation section 173.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of the case in which the father receivesthree RSS article deliveries, articles on soccer, articles on allsports, and articles on horse racing. Keywords are extracted from all ofthe articles on soccer, the articles on all sports, and the articles onhorse racing. In the RSS article keyword rankings in FIG. 11, the“preliminary”, to which 20 points are given, is the first keyword, and“Japan”, to which 19 points are given, is the second keyword.

As shown by solid-white arrows A3 and A4, the number of topic keywords(the number of topic keywords in a program) included in the programkeywords of each program is counted from the program keywords and thetopic keywords, which are listed from the first to the 50th in therankings of the RSS article keywords. The program is provided withpoints in accordance with that number, and the program rankings arecreated as shown by the destination of a solid-white arrow A5.

In the example of FIG. 11, “Japan vs. Bahrain”, to which nine points aregiven, is the first program, and “Iran vs. North Korea”, to which eightpoints are given, is the second program. The titles of the programs,such as “Japan vs. Bahrain”, “Iran vs. North Korea”, etc., can beacquired from the program information as shown by a solid-white arrowA6.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of program information ofthe program recorded by the father.

In the example of FIG. 12, sumo, horse racing, and soccer are therecorded programs. The program titles, the detailed information (programdetails) as shown in the figure are stored in the program informationdatabase 154.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of the program rankingscreated on the basis of the program information of FIG. 12, etc.

FIG. 13 shows an example of the program titles and the detailedinformation of seven higher-ranking programs. The first program is theprogram of “Japan vs. Bahrain”, which includes eight topic keywords inthe program information.

When the father selects his profile, and instructs to display theprogram/RSS article introduction screen, four high-ranking programs areselected from the programs listed on such program rankings, and they aredisplayed on individual areas of the program/RSS article introductionscreen.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of the program informationof the program recorded by the mother.

In the example of FIG. 14, variety programs in which idols appear on thestage and music programs are recorded programs. The program titles andthe detailed information shown in the figure are stored in the programinformation database 154.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of the program rankingscreated on the basis of the program information of FIG. 14.

FIG. 15 shows an example of the program titles and the detailedinformation of seven higher-ranking programs. The first program is theprogram of “SNAP×SNAP”, which includes four topic keywords in theprogram information.

When the mother selects her profile and instructs to display theprogram/RSS article introduction screen, four high-ranking programs areselected from the programs listed on such program rankings, and they aredisplayed on individual areas of the program/RSS article introductionscreen.

In this regard, programs may not be selected for each one user, andprograms may be selected on the basis of all the RSS articles that areindividually delivered to a plurality of users (for example, all thefamily members), and those programs may be introduced as suitableprograms to all the users.

Also, programs may be selected from the recorded programs by a pluralityof users (for example, all the family members) on the basis of the RSSarticles delivered to each user, and those programs may be introduced assuitable programs to each user.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the detailedconfiguration of the RSS article selection section 156 in FIG. 9.

A program keyword extraction section 181 reads the program informationof the display candidate programs selected by the program selectionsection 155 from the program information database 154, and extracts theprogram keywords by referencing dictionaries provided, etc. The programkeyword extraction section 181 creates a list of the program keywords,and outputs the created list to a selection section 183.

The RSS article keyword extraction section 182 extracts RSS articlekeywords from the individual RSS articles stored in the RSS articledatabase 152 by referencing dictionaries provided, etc., and creates alist of the extracted RSS article keywords for each RSS article. That isto say, the RSS article keyword extraction section 182 creates one RSSarticle keyword list from one RSS article. The RSS article keyword listcreated by the RSS article keyword extraction section 182 is outputs tothe selection section 183.

The selection section 183 performs matching between the program keywordslisted on the list supplied from the program keyword extraction section181 and the RSS article keywords on the list supplied from the RSSarticle keyword extraction section 182, and creates the rankings of theRSS articles in accordance with the number of the included programkeywords. Also, the selection section 183 selects a predetermined numberof RSS articles listed on the higher rankings of the created RSSarticles, and outputs the title and the body text to the displaycontroller 157.

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating the processing flow by the RSS articleselection section 156.

For example, as shown by a solid-white arrow A11, program keywords areextracted from the program information of display candidate programs bythe program keyword extraction section 181. In the example of FIG. 17,the title of the display candidate program is “Japan vs. Bahrain”, andits detailed information is “final preliminary decisive match will be .. . ”. Also; the keywords, “Japan”, “Bahrain”, “best”, “Asia”, areextracted as the program keywords from the detailed information, andthese keywords are listed as the program keywords.

At the same time, as shown by a solid-white arrow A12, RSS articlekeyword lists are created from individual RSS articles. In the exampleof FIG. 17, from the RSS article A, which is an RSS article on soccer,the RSS article keyword lists including “Japan”, “Bahrain”,“preliminary”, . . . are created, and from the RSS article B, which isan RSS article on soccer, the RSS article keyword lists including“Zico”, “Asia”, “decisive match”, . . . are created.

As shown by solid-white arrows A13-1 to A13-n, matching is performedbetween the RSS article keywords on individual RSS article keyword listand the program keywords on the program keyword list, and thus as shownby the destination of the solid-white arrow A14, points are given inaccordance with the number of program keywords included in the RSSarticle keywords to create a list (rankings) of RSS articles.

In the example of FIG. 17, the RSS article list includes RSS article A,RSS article D, RSS article E, . . . . A predetermined RSS articles areselected from this RSS article list, and the titles and the body textsof the RSS articles are displayed on the program/RSS articleintroduction screen.

Next, a description will be given of a series of processing of theinformation processing apparatus 1 having the above-describedconfiguration.

First, a description will be given of the program selection/displayprocessing of the information processing apparatus 1 with reference tothe flowchart in FIG. 18.

In step S1, the CPU 101 determines whether program information (EPG) isbeing acquired or not. If it is being acquired, the CPU 101 waits untilthe end of the acquisition. The EPG acquired by the TS decoder 108 froma broadcast wave or the EPG acquired by the SIO controller 115 from apredetermined server is supplied to the HDD 118, and stored.

In step S1, when the CPU 101 determines that program information is notbeing acquired, or the acquisition has been completed, the CPU 101proceeds to step S2. When the current state is waiting, a determinationis made on whether there has been an instruction to turn the power on(the state capable of accepting a user's operation using a remotecontroller).

In step S2, when the CPU 101 determines that the power has been alreadyon and there has been no instruction to turn on the power, the CPU 101proceeds to step S3. The CPU 101 instructs to display a menu screen, anddetermines whether the category of the profile selection (userselection) has been selected from the menu screen. In step S3, when theCPU 101 determines that the display of a menu screen, etc., has not beeninstructed, the CPU 101 returns to step S1, and execute the aboveprocessing repeatedly.

On the other hand, in step S3, when the display of the menu screen isinstructed and the CPU 101 determines that the category of profileselection has been selected, the CPU 101 proceeds to step S4, and theCPU 101 executes profile selection processing.

Also, in step S2, when it is determined that an instruction has beengiven to turn on the power, the processing also proceeds to step S4, andthe CPU 101 executes profile selection processing. That is to say, theuser can select profile and display program/RSS article introductionscreen not only from the menu screen, but also from the screen displayedwhen instructed to turn on the power.

When profile is selected in step S4, the profile selection processing iscompleted, and the processing proceeds to step S5. The profile selectionprocessing will be described below with reference to the flowchart inFIG. 19.

In step S5, the CPU 101 performs RSS article acquisition processing. Thelatest RSS articles are acquired by this processing, and the followingprocessing is performed on the basis of the latest RSS articles. The RSSarticle acquisition processing will be described below with reference tothe flowchart in FIG. 20.

In step S6, the CPU 101 performs program selection processing whichselects programs to be introduced to the user. By this processing,candidate programs to he displayed on the program/RSS articleintroduction screen are selected. The program selection processing willbe described below with reference to the flowchart in FIG. 21.

In step S7, the CPU 101 performs selected program display processingwhich displays a predetermined programs from the display candidateprograms selected in the program selection processing in step S6 to bedisplayed on the RSS article introduction screen. The selected programdisplay processing will be described below with reference to theflowchart in FIG. 22.

In this regard, the selection processing of RSS article articlesintroduced as program related information is performed in parallel withthe above-described processing. The title and the body text of the RSSarticle articles are displayed at the same timing as the display of theprograms by the processing of step S7. That is to say, thebelow-described processing in FIG. 23 is performed in parallel with theprocessing in FIG. 18. For example, the processing of step S56 (programrelated information display processing) in FIG. 23 is performed at thesame timing as the processing of step S7 in FIG. 18, and thus the titlesand the body texts of the program and the RSS-articles are displayed onthe program/RSS article introduction screen.

When an instruction has given to complete the display of the program/RSSarticle introduction screen, the processing returns to step Si, and thesubsequent processing is performed.

Next, a description will be given of the profile selection processingperformed in step S4 in FIG. 18 with reference to the flowchart in FIG.19.

When a category of profile selection is selected from the menu screen,in step S11, the CPU 101 displays a screen (profile selection screen),as shown in FIG. 5A, in which the icons of the registered profiles suchas “father”, “mother”, etc., are displayed in an arrangement in avertical direction. At this time, the user can select his/her ownprofile by the operation in the vertical direction using a remotecontroller, etc.

When a profile is selected by the user, the CPU 101 accepts it in stepS12. Then, the processing returns to step S4 in FIG. 18, and thesubsequent processing is performed.

Next, a description will be given of the RSS article acquisitionprocessing performed in step S5 in FIG. 18 with reference to theflowchart in FIG. 20.

In step S21, the RSS article acquisition section 151 (FIG. 9) of the CPU101 acquires a list of sites to be the RSS article acquisitiondestination from the information of the profile selected in the profileselection processing. That is to say, a list of the delivery sites ofthe RSS articles is provided for each user, and the URLs (UniformResource Locators) of the delivery sites, etc., are described on thelist.

In step S22, the RSS article acquisition section 151 accesses thedelivery sites of all the RSS articles on the list, acquires the RSSarticles, and stores the acquired RSS articles into the RSS articledatabase 152. Then, the processing returns to step S5 in FIG. 18, andthe subsequent portion is performed.

Next, a description will be given of the program selection processingperformed in step S6 in FIG. 18 with reference to the flowchart in FIG.21.

In step S31, the program keyword extraction section 171 (FIG. 10) of theCPU 101 reads the program information of a program being broadcast or arecorded program from the program information database 154, proceeds tostep S32, and extracts program keywords for each program. The programkeywords extracted by the program keyword extraction section 171 areoutput to the program ranking creation section 174.

In step S33, the RSS article keyword extraction section 172 reads allthe RSS articles delivered to the user from the RSS article database152, and extracts the RSS article keywords from the read RSS articles.The RSS article keywords extracted by the RSS article keyword extractionsection 172 are outputs to the RSS article keyword ranking creationsection 173.

In step S34, the RSS article keyword ranking creation section 173 givespoints to the RSS article keywords extracted by the RSS article keywordextraction section 172 in accordance with the number of the keywordsincluded in the RSS articles, and creates RSS article keyword rankings.The keywords on the RSS article keyword rankings that are created bythis processing, for example top 50, are output to the program rankingcreation section 174 as topic keywords.

In step S35, the program ranking creation section 174 determines whetherthe topic keywords supplied from the RSS article keyword rankingcreation section 173 are included in the program keywords of eachprogram supplied from the program keyword extraction section 171. Ifincluded, the program ranking creation section 174 counts the number oftopic keywords (topic keywords in the program) included in the program.

The program ranking creation section 174 proceeds to step S36, givespoints in accordance with the number of topic keywords in the programcounted in step S35 to each program, and creates the program rankings.The program rankings created by the program ranking creation section 174are output to the selection section 175.

In step S37, the selection section 175 selects a predetermined number ofprograms listed at the high rankings on the program rankings created bythe program ranking creation section 174 as programs for displaycandidates, and outputs the information of the selected programs to theRSS article selection section 156 and the display controller 157. Then,the processing returns to step S6 in FIG. 18, and the subsequentprocessing is performed.

In this regard, the processing for selecting programs is not limited tothe above processing. That is to say, the processing having anyprocedure may be used if the matters that have become general topics bythe RSS articles are analyzed and the programs matching to the mattersare selected on the basis of the program information.

Next, a description will be given of the selected program displayprocessing performed in step S7 in FIG. 18 with reference to theflowchart in FIG. 22.

In step S41, the display controller 157 selects the same number ofprograms as the number of programs to be displayed on the program/RSSarticle introduction screen from the programs of the display candidatesselected by the program selection section 155. Here, for example thesame number of programs as the number of programs to be displayed on theprogram/RSS article introduction screen are selected from the firstprogram ranking in sequence.

In step S42, the display controller 157 displays the program selected instep S41 at the position in accordance with the ranking given to eachprogram in order for the program having a higher ranking to be displayedin a bigger size. That is to say, when four programs are selected, theprogram having the highest ranking is displayed on the main screen 11,and the other programs are displayed in sub-screens 12-1 to 12-3.

In step S43, the display controller 157 switches the displays of theprogram/RSS article introduction screen in accordance with the user'soperation, etc.

For example, the display controller 157 displays only the selectedprogram on the full screen of the TV 2 when one recorded program isselected and the reproduction of the program is instructed. Also, if theselected program is a program being broadcast, the display controller157 displays a menu screen of operations capable of performing on theprogram being broadcast, etc. The user can instruct to record theintroduced program being broadcast from this menu screen, etc.

Further, when an instruction is given to switch programs displayed inthe main screen 11 and the sub-screens 12-1 to 12-3, the programselection section 155 displays the other display candidate programs thatare not currently displayed.

When the completion of the display of the program/RSS articleintroduction screen is instructed, the processing returns to step S7 inFIG. 18, and the processing of step S1 and after are repeatedlyperformed.

Next, a description will be given of the program related informationselection/display processing of the information processing apparatus 1with reference to the flowchart in FIG. 23.

In step S51, the CPU 101 determines whether the program/RSS articleintroduction screen is being displayed, and waits until it is beingdisplayed.

For example, when the program/RSS article introduction screen isdisplayed (when the program of display candidate is selected by theprocessing of FIG. 18), or the program/RSS article introduction screenhas already been displayed, in step S51, the CPU 101 determines that theprogram/RSS article introduction screen is being displayed, and theprocessing proceeds to step S52.

In step S52, the CPU 101 determines whether the program to be displayedon the program/RSS article introduction screen is changed. In step S52,if the CPU 101 determines that the program is to be changed, theprocessing proceeds to step S53.

When the CPU 101 acquires the program information in step S53, ordetermines not to change the program in step S52, the processingproceeds to step S54.

In step S54, the CPU 101 performs the RSS article acquisitionprocessing. Here, the latest RSS articles are obtained by the sameprocessing as the processing described with reference to FIG. 20, andthe subsequent processing is performed on the basis of the acquired RSSarticles.

In step S55, the CPU 101 performs the program related informationselection processing, and selects the RSS articles as the informationrelated to the programs displayed on the program/RSS articleintroduction screen. The program related information selectionprocessing will be described below with reference to the flowchart ofFIG. 24.

In step S56, the CPU 101 performs the program related informationdisplay processing to display the titles and the body texts of the RSSarticles selected in the processing of step S55 onto the program/RSSarticle introduction screen. The processing of this step S56 isperformed at the same timing as the processing of step S7 in FIG. 18,and thus the program/RSS article introduction screen as shown in FIG. 2is displayed. The program related information display processing will bedescribed below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 25.

When the completion of the display of the program/RSS articleintroduction screen is instructed, the processing returns to step S51,and the subsequent processing is performed.

Next, a description will be given of the program related informationselection processing performed in step S55 in FIG. 23 with reference tothe flowchart in FIG. 24.

In step S61, the program keyword extraction section 181 (FIG. 16) of theCPU 101 reads program information of the display candidates selected bythe program selection section 155 from the program information database154, proceeds to step S62, and extracts program keywords.

In step S63, the program keyword extraction section 181 creates a listof the program keywords extracted in step S62, and outputs the createdlist to the selection section 183.

In step S64, the RSS article keyword extraction section 182 extracts RSSarticle keywords from individual keywords stored in the RSS articledatabase 152, proceeds to step S65, and creates a list of the RSSarticle keywords extracted in step S64. The list of the RSS articlekeywords created by the RSS article keyword extraction section 182 isoutput to the selection section 183.

In step S66, the selection section 183 performs matching between theprogram keywords on the program keyword list supplied from the programkeyword extraction section 181 and the RSS article keywords on the RSSarticle keyword list supplied from the RSS article keyword extractionsection 182, and counts the number of program keywords included in theRSS article keywords extracted from the individual RSS articles.

In step S67, the selection section 183 creates the rankings of the RSSarticles in accordance with the number of the program keywords includedfrom the processing result of step S66, and the processing proceeds tostep S68.

In step S68, the selection section 183 selects a predetermined number ofthe RSS articles on the higher rankings of the RSS article rankings asthe program related information, and outputs the selected RSS articlesto the display controller 157. Then, the processing returns to step S55in FIG. 22, and the subsequent processing is performed.

The above processing is performed for each display candidate program,and thus one RSS article ranking is created for one display candidateprogram, and the RSS articles on the list are selected as the programrelated information.

In this regard, the processing for selecting the RSS articles is notlimited to the above processing. That is to say, the processing may beperformed by any procedure provided that the RSS articles related to thedisplay candidate program selected by any procedure is selected on thebasis of the RSS articles and the program information.

Next, a description will be given of the program related informationdisplay processing performed in step S56 in FIG. 23 with reference tothe flowchart in FIG. 25.

In step S71, the display controller 157 displays the title of the RSSarticles related to individual programs to be displayed on theprogram/RSS article introduction screen in the vicinity of theindividual programs.

Thus, for example, the title of the RSS article related to the programdisplayed on the main screen 11 is displayed in the RSS article titledisplay section 11A provided below the main screen 11. Also, the titlesof the RSS articles related to the programs displayed on sub-screens12-1 to 12-3 are displayed in the RSS article title display sections12-1A to 12-3A provided below the sub-screens 12-1 to 12-3. The title ofthe RSS article to be displayed immediately after the display of theprogram/RSS article introduction screen is, for example the title of theRSS article having the highest ranking among the RSS article rankingscreated by the selection section 183.

In step S72, the display controller 157 displays the body text of theRSS article (the body text of the RSS article whose title is displayedin the RSS article title display section 11A) related to the programdisplayed on the main screen 11 in the RSS article text display section11B. Thus, the user is allowed to determine whether to view the programdisplayed on the main screen 11 while reading the body text.

In step S73, the display controller 157 switches the displays of thetitles and the body texts of the RSS articles in accordance with theuser's operation, etc.

For example, when a title of an RSS article is selected, the displaycontroller 157 displays the body text and the content of the RSSarticle. Also, a plurality of RSS articles are selected as relatedinformation for one program, and thus, for example the displaycontroller 157 displays the titles and the body texts of individual RSSarticles in sequence at a predetermined time intervals in accordancewith the given rankings.

Here, a description will be given of the switching of displays of RSSarticles.

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating display areas of the TV 2.

In FIG. 26, the main screen 11 in FIG. 2 is represented by an area A,the RSS article title display section 11A is represented by an area a1,and the RSS article text display section 11B is represented by an areaa2. Also, sub-screens 12-1 to 12-3 are represented by areas B to D,respectively. The RSS article title display sections 12-1A to 12-3A arerepresented by areas b to d, respectively.

FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating display candidate programs and the RSSarticles that are related information thereof.

In FIG. 27, programs V1, V2, V3, V4, V5, . . . are shown as candidateprograms. Among these programs, the program V1 has RSS articles R(V1-1),R(V1-2), and R(V1-3) as related RSS articles, and the program V2 has RSSarticles R(V2-1), R(V2-2), and R(V2-3) as related RSS articles. For theother programs subsequent to the program V2, the RSS articles areselected as the related information.

FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating an example of switching displays.

In the upper display of FIG. 28, the program V1 is shown in the area A,the title of the RSS article R(V1-1), which is one piece of relatedinformation of the program V1, R.t(V1-1), is shown in the area a1, andthe body text of the RSS article R(V1-1), R.d(V1-1), is shown in thearea a2.

Also, in the upper display of FIG. 28, the program V2 is shown in thearea B, the title of the RSS article R(V2-1), which is one piece ofrelated information of the program V2, R.t(V2-1), is shown in the areab. The program V3 is shown in the area C, the title of the RSS articleR(V3-1), which is one piece of related information of the program V3,R.t(V3-1), is shown in the area c. Similarly, program V4 is shown in thearea D, the title of the RSS article R(V4-1), which is one piece ofrelated information of the program V4, R.t(V4-1), is shown in the aread.

Such a display is switched to the lower display in FIG. 28 at apredetermined timing, such as an elapse of a predetermined time period,or when the user carries out a predetermined operation, etc.

In the lower display of FIG. 28, the title of the RSS article R(V1-2),which is one piece of related information of the program V1, R.t(V1-2),is shown in the area a1, and the body text of the RSS article R(V1-2),R.d(V1-2) is shown in the area a2.

Also, the title of the RSS article R(V2-2), which is one piece ofrelated information of the program V2, R.t(V2-2), is shown in the areab, the title of the RSS article R(V3-2), which is one piece of relatedinformation of the program V3, R.t(V3-2), is shown in the area c, andthe title of the RSS article R(V4-2), which is one piece of relatedinformation of the program V4, R.t(V4-2), is shown in the area d.

That is to say, this example shows a case in which the program aredisplayed in individual areas without change, and the RSS articlesintroduced to the user are switched after the elapse of a predeterminedtime. Thus, the user is allowed to select a program while viewing theRSS article titles being switched and the body text of the RSS articledisplayed in the RSS article text display section 11B.

FIG. 29 is a diagram illustrating another example of switching displays.

The upper left display of FIG. 29 is the same as the upper display ofFIG. 28. Such a display is switched to the lower left display of FIG. 29at a predetermined timing, such as an elapse of a predetermined timeperiod, or when the user carries out a predetermined operation, etc.

In the lower left display of FIG. 29, the title of the RSS articleR(V1-2), which is one piece of related information of the program V1,R.t(V1-2), is shown in the area a1, and the body text of the RSS articleR(V1-2), R.d(V1-2) is shown in the area a2.

Also, in the lower left display of FIG. 29, the program V3 is shown inthe area B, the title of the RSS article R(V3-2), which is one piece ofrelated information of the program V3, R.t(V3-2), is shown in the areab. The program V4 is shown in the area C, the title of the RSS articleR(V4-2), which is one piece of related information of the program V4,R.t(V4-2), is shown in the area c. Similarly, program V5 is shown in thearea D, the title of the RSS article R(V5-1), which is one piece ofrelated information of the program V5, R.t(V5-1), is shown in the aread.

Further, such a display is switched to the lower right display of FIG.29 at a predetermined timing, such as an elapse of a predetermined timeperiod, or when the user carries out a predetermined operation, etc.

In the lower right display of FIG. 29, the title of the RSS articleR(V1-3), which is one piece of related information of the program V1,R.t(V1-3), is shown in the area a1, and the body text of the RSS articleR(V1-3), R.d(V1-3) is shown in the area a2.

Also, in the lower right display of FIG. 29, the program V4 is shown inthe area B, the title of the RSS article R(V4-3), which is one piece ofrelated information of the program V4, R.t(V4-3), is shown in the areab. The program V5 is shown in the area C, the title of the RSS articleR(V5-2), which is one piece of related information of the program V5,R.t(V5-2), is shown in the area c. Similarly, program V6 is shown in thearea D, the title of the RSS article R(V6-1), which is one piece ofrelated information of the program V6, R.t(V6-1), is shown in the aread.

That is to say, the example of FIG. 29 shows a case in which the programis displayed in the areas A without change, and the programs displayedin the areas B to D are switched to be moved in the left direction insequence.

Specifically, when the displays are switched, for the areas B to D, theprogram that has been displayed in the leftmost area B so fardisappears, and the program that has been displayed in the area C isdisplayed there. Also, the program that has been displayed in the area Dis displayed in the area C. The program that has not been displayed isdisplayed in the rightmost area D.

Further, the display position of the titles, the body texts of the RSSarticles related to the program are moved along with the move of thedisplay position of the program, and the contents (types of the RSSarticles) are switched in sequence in the same manner as the case ofFIG. 28.

FIG. 30 is a diagram illustrating still another example of switchingdisplays.

The upper left display of FIG. 30 is the same as the upper display ofFIG. 28. In such a state, for example when the program V4 (the programV4 and the title of the RSS article R(V4-1), R.t(V4-1), displayed in thearea d) displayed in the area D is selected and is instructed to bedeleted, for example the display of the TV 2 is switched to the lowerleft display of FIG. 30.

In the lower left display in FIG. 30, the title of the RSS articleR(V1-2), which is one piece of related information of the program V1,R.t(V1-2), is shown in the area a1, the body text of the RSS articleR(V1-1), which is the body text of the program V1, R.d(V1-2), is shownin the area a2. The title of the RSS article R(V2-2), which is one pieceof related information of the program V2, R.t(V2-2), is shown in thearea b. The title of the RSS article R(V3-2), which is one piece ofrelated information of the program V3, R.t(V3-2), is shown in the areac.

Further, in the lower left display of FIG. 30, the program V5 is shownin the area D, the title of the RSS article R(V5-1), which is one pieceof related information of the program V5, R.t(V5-1), is shown in thearea d.

Also, the upper left display of FIG. 30 may be switched to the lowerright display of FIG. 30 by the user's operation.

In the lower right display of FIG. 30, the program V1new is shown in thearea D, the title of the RSS article R(V1new-1), which is one piece ofrelated information of the program V1new, R.t(V1new-1), is shown in thearea d, which is different from the lower left display of FIG. 30. Theother displays are the same. Here, the program V1new is, a so-calledcounter program, for example which is broadcast in the same time slot asthe program V1 that is displayed in the area A.

That is to say, the example of FIG. 30 shows the case in which when auser selects a certain program (program and the title of the RSSarticle) and deletes it, another program and the title of the RSSarticle related to that program are displayed in place of the certainprogram. In this manner, the user is allowed to perform various kinds ofoperations, such as deletion of the program displayed on the program/RSSarticle introduction screen, etc.

As described above, the program to be introduced to the user isdisplayed at a different position or in an area in different size inaccordance with the rankings given on the basis of the programinformation and the RSS article. However, the difference in the rankingmay be expressed in the difference in display, for example in color ofthe frame of the program. In this case, for example the frame of aprogram having higher ranking is expressed more conspicuously than theframe of the program having lower rankings.

Also, the title of the RSS article, the keywords included in the bodytext displayed on the program/RSS article introduction screen may bedisplayed in a more conspicuous manner than the other words. For thedisplay of the title of the RSS article and the body text, if the titleand the entire body text are not allowed to be displayed at once in anallocated area, the summary may be displayed, or the content may flowfrom one side of the screen to the other side. The display of the titleof the RSS article may flow repeatedly, and the user may be allowed tostop the flow at a predetermined timing. After the display of the titleflows once, for example the other information on the program, such as achannel and a broadcast time, etc., acquired from the programinformation may be displayed subsequently.

Also, the RSS articles whose body text and Web pages are not checked bythe user may be displayed differently in color from those that havealready checked. The titles of important RSS articles may be displayedconspicuously, or those titles and body texts may be displayed to bepopped up.

Also, the user may switch the RSS articles to an upper-level RSS articleor a lower-level RSS article in sequence. The user may also be allowedto delete unnecessary RSS articles.

Furthermore, in an area in which the titles and the body texts of theRSS articles are displayed, information other than the RSS articles, forexample an advertisement, the URL of a predetermined site (for example,the delivery site of the RSS article), etc., may be displayed. When therecording reservation of a program is set, the RSS article may beacquired, and that RSS article may be selected as the relatedinformation to the recorded program.

Also, such program-related information may not be displayed in thevicinity of the program, and may be displayed on a display unit such asa mobile terminal, etc., provided separately from the TV 2. That is tosay, when the information related to a program is selected, theinformation processing apparatus 1 transmits the information, such asthe titles and the body texts of the RSS articles to a separateapparatus using wireless or wired communication.

In the above description, the programs to be introduced on theprogram/RSS article introduction screen are the programs being broadcastor the recorded programs. However, if there is no program to beintroduced among the recorded programs and the programs being broadcast,the programs scheduled to be broadcast may be introduced. In this case,the information, such as the image of the program scheduled to bebroadcast acquired from the program information, the title of theprogram, the performers, etc., are displayed in the area allocated forthe program scheduled to be broadcast within the program/RSS articleintroduction screen. Furthermore, when the same information as the EPGin the program scheduled to be broadcast is provided, the stream contentacquired through the Internet may be introduced.

Also, in the above description, a plurality of programs are selected onthe basis of one set of the program rankings created, and are displayedin individual areas of the program/RSS article introduction screen.However, such program rankings may be created for each category, theprograms may be selected for each category on the basis of the programrankings in each category, and may be displayed on the program/RSSarticle introduction screen. For example, as described with reference toFIG. 11, when the “father” receives the delivery of the RSS articles on“soccer”, “all sports”, and “horse racing”, the RSS article keywords areextracted for each category (“soccer”, “all sports”, and “horseracing”), and the program rankings are created using the extracted RSSarticle keywords. The programs that are listed on the first rankings forindividual categories are displayed on the program/RSS articleintroduction screen. Thus, the user can check the program that hasbecome a topic for each category.

Also, the user may be allowed to modify the keywords and the programrankings that are the bases of the program selection by himself/herself.Furthermore, the program selection may be carried out with reference tothe user's viewing history on the RSS articles, operation history, etc.

Also, the RSS articles to be the bases of the program selection may beacquired from the delivery sites at the time of the profile selection.

Also, after turning the power on, the RSS articles may be acquired, theprogram selection processing may be performed, and the selected programmay be displayed without displaying the profile selection screen. Atthat time, the program may be selected on the basis of all the RSSarticles that are individually delivered to a plurality of users (forexample, all the family members). Alternatively, the program may beselected on the basis of all the RSS articles that are delivered to theuser having the first priority among the individual users.

Furthermore, in the above description, different programs areindividually displayed on the program/RSS article introduction screen.However, different scenes of the same program may be selected on thebasis of the closed captions, and the individual scenes may bedisplayed. Thus, the user can select a scene to be viewed. Also, the RSSarticles may be selected as the related information on the basis of notonly the program information of the display candidates but also theclosed captions, etc.

The above-described series of processing can be executed by hardware orcan be executed by software. When the series of processing is executedby software, the programs constituting the software are built in adedicated hardware of a computer. Alternatively, the various programsare installed in, for example a general-purpose personal computercapable of executing various functions from a recording medium.

FIG. 31 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configurationof a personal computer for executing the above-described series ofprocessing. A CPU 201 executes various kinds of processing in accordancewith the programs stored in a ROM 202 or a storage section 208. A RAM203 appropriately stores programs to be executed by the CPU 201, data,etc. The CPU 201, the ROM 202, and the RAM 203 are mutually connectedwith a bus 204.

An input/output interface 205 is connected to the CPU 201 through thebus 204. An input section 206 including a keyboard, a mouse, amicrophone, etc., and an output section 207 including a display, aspeaker, etc., are connected to the input/output interface 205. The CPU201 executes various kinds of processing in accordance with instructionsinput from the input section 206. The CPU 201 outputs the result of theprocessing to the output section 207.

The storage section 208 connected to the input/output interface 205includes, for example a hard disk, and stores the programs executed bythe CPU 201 and various kinds of data. A communication section 209communicates with an external apparatuses through a network such as theInternet, a local area network, etc.

Also, the programs may be acquired through the communication section209, and may be stored in the storage section 208.

When a removable medium 211, such as a magnetic disk, an optical disc, amagneto-optical disc, or a semiconductor memory, etc., is attached, adrive 210 connected to the input/output interface 205 drives the medium,and acquires the program and the data recorded there. The acquiredprogram and data is transferred to the storage section 208 as required,and is stored there.

The program recording medium for storing the programs, which areinstalled in a computer and is executable by the computer, includes, asshown in FIG. 31, a removable medium 211 which is a package mediumincluding, such as a magnetic disk (including a flexible disk), anoptical disc (including a CD-ROM (Compact Disk-Read Only Memory) and aDVD (Digital Versatile Disk)), a magneto-optical disc, or asemiconductor memory, etc. Alternatively, the program recording mediumincludes a ROM 202 for storing the programs temporarily or permanently,a hard disk constituting the storage section 208, etc. The storage ofthe programs into the program recording medium is carried out throughthe communication section 209, which is a router, a modem, etc., asnecessary, or using a wired or wireless communication medium, such as alocal area network, the Internet, a digital satellite broadcasting, etc.

In this regard, in this specification, the steps describing the programsto be stored in the program recording medium include the processing tobe performed in time series in accordance with the described sequence asa matter of course. Also, the steps include the processing which is notnecessarily executed in time series, but is executed in parallel orindividually.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that variousmodifications, combinations, sub-combinations and alterations may occurdepending on design requirements and other factors insofar as they arewithin the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

1. An information processing apparatus, comprising: a processor; a firstselection unit configured to extract and rank a keyword from programinformation of a predetermined program selected from at least one of aprogram being received and a recorded program, and to select articleinformation having a highest ranking and which includes the same keywordas the extracted keyword among article information described in aResource Description Framework Site Summary (RSS) format; a displaycontroller configured to display the article information having thehighest ranking selected by the first selection section simultaneouslywith an image of the predetermined program; a first setting unitconfigured to extract a keyword from article information described inRSS format, and to rank the extracted keyword; a second setting unitconfigured to acquire at least one of program information on a programbeing received and program information on a recorded program, and torank the program which includes, in the program information, the samekeyword as a keyword having a predetermined ranking among the keywordshaving rankings provided by the first setting unit; and a secondselection unit configured to select the predetermined program on thebasis of the rankings given by the second setting unit.
 2. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein thedisplay controller is further configured to switch displays of thearticle information in accordance with the rankings.
 3. The informationprocessing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the displaycontroller is configured to display at least one of a program/RSSarticle introduction screen including a main screen, an RSS articletitle display section, an RSS article body text display section, atleast one sub-screen, and an RSS article title display.
 4. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein, a widestarea is allocated to the main screen, the main screen is an area inwhich the program having the highest ranking selected from the recordedprogram or the program being broadcast is displayed.
 5. The informationprocessing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein when informationpublished on an RSS article delivery site is updated, a plurality of RSSarticles are acquired immediately after the update, and the programs areselected on the basis of the acquired RSS articles.
 6. A method ofinformation processing, comprising: extracting a keyword from programinformation of a predetermined program selected from at least one of aprogram being received and a recorded program; selecting articleinformation which includes the same keyword as the extracted keywordamong the article information described in a Resource DescriptionFramework Site Summary (RSS) format and being delivered to a user, theselecting article information including ranking the extracted keywordand selecting article information having a highest ranking; displayingthe selected article information having the highest rankingsimultaneously with an image of the predetermined program; extracting akeyword from article information described in RSS format, and rankingthe extracted keyword; acquiring at least one of program information ona program being received and program information on a recorded program,and to rank the program which includes, in the program information, thesame keyword as a keyword having a predetermined ranking among thekeywords having rankings provided by the extracting the keyword fromarticle information step; and selecting the predetermined program on thebasis of the rankings given by the acquiring step.
 7. A computerreadable storage medium encoded with a computer readable programconfigured to cause an information processing apparatus to execute amethod, the method comprising: extracting a keyword from programinformation of a predetermined program selected from at least one of aprogram being received and a recorded program; selecting articleinformation which includes the same keyword as the extracted keywordamong the article information described in a Resource DescriptionFramework Site Summary (RSS) format and being delivered to a user, theselecting article information including ranking the extracted keywordand selecting article information having a highest ranking; displayingthe selected article information having the highest rankingsimultaneously with an image of the predetermined program; extracting akeyword from article information described in RSS format, and rankingthe extracted keyword; acquiring at least one of program information ona program being received and program information on a recorded program,and to rank the program which includes, in the program information, thesame keyword as a keyword having a predetermined ranking among thekeywords having rankings provided by the extracting the keyword fromarticle information step; and selecting the predetermined program on thebasis of the rankings given by the acquiring step.
 8. The computerreadable storage medium according to claim 7, wherein the displaying thearticle information includes switching displays of the articleinformation in accordance with the rankings.